Sales tax and/or excise tax?

[Anonymous]

My husband and I cannot figure this out despite much googling (and law degrees but those consistently prove themselves useless)... We are looking to buy a new car very soon - the car will be registered in DC. We know we will pay 6% DC sales tax on the car because it will be registered there, but then when we look at DMV fees we see that there is (also?) a 6% excise tax. So do we pay essentially 12% tax on the purchase, or does the “sales” tax we'll pay at purchase cover the “excise” tax the DMV would otherwise collect? Thank you in advance to anyone who has gone through this and can answer for us!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I cannot figure this out despite much googling (and law degrees but those consistently prove themselves useless)... We are looking to buy a new car very soon - the car will be registered in DC. We know we will pay 6% DC sales tax on the car because it will be registered there, but then when we look at DMV fees we see that there is (also?) a 6% excise tax. So do we pay essentially 12% tax on the purchase, or does the “sales” tax we'll pay at purchase cover the “excise” tax the DMV would otherwise collect? Thank you in advance to anyone who has gone through this and can answer for us!!

Excise tax is in lieu of sales tax. IIRC, the rate differs depending on the weight of the vehicle in DC.

[Anonymous]

OP here, following up in case anyone else ever stumbles upon this board with the same question. Sales tax and excise tax are the same - meaning you only pay one - and the dealer takes care of this for you (collects the sales tax and sends all necessary info to the DMV to get your registration completed). I believe if you purchase through a private transaction you'll then have to pay the excise tax when you register your car at the DC DMV but can't be 100% sure since that's not the route we went.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, following up in case anyone else ever stumbles upon this board with the same question. Sales tax and excise tax are the same - meaning you only pay one - and the dealer takes care of this for you (collects the sales tax and sends all necessary info to the DMV to get your registration completed). I believe if you purchase through a private transaction you'll then have to pay the excise tax when you register your car at the DC DMV but can't be 100% sure since that's not the route we went.

This is correct, you will pay excise tax upon registering your car unless you can show that it was already paid during the transaction. Many dealers will handle all this for you.